The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the movie, "Serenity."

Joss and company call it "shiny."

That's a very Whedonesque term, and I accept it. Perhaps, even, in a sense it fits.

There is so much loss, so much pain, in "Serenity," however, that I'd resist calling it shiny.

What I would call it instead is the biggest, best gorram movie this year, scifi or otherwise.

It deserves to sweep the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress ... hell it deserves 'em all. That won't happen, of course. Given its aversion to all things that even smell like science fiction, the Academy will likely award "Serenity" for best hairdressing or some such, pat Joss Whedon on the head, and forget the whole thing.

Which will be a terrible mistake because this film is simply the best drama to come along in a heck of a long time.

Full disclosure: I'm neither a VIP, nor one of those lucky ones who got to see "Serenity" in one of the preview fan screenings. What I was able to do is buy Keith R.A. DeCandido's excellent novelization before the premiere, and devour that over a matter of a couple days.

There are space ships and futuristic this and that. But "Serenity" is about people and ultimately how a group of people--namely, the crew of the ship -- treat each other, and how they grow.

Joss Whedon has always been about his characters having to pay a price to succeed. He says that's what makes good drama, and he's right.

But the characters in "Serenity" pay so much for their gains that they surely deserve some kind of free bonus gift from the cosmic good karma department.

By the end of the story, Joss has killed not one, but two of his main characters.

Even in a nine-player cast, that still represents the elimination of roughly a quarter of his dramatis personsae.

That's a whole lotta loss.

I'll tell you that I expected Joss to kill one of the crew. Not that I had any inside dish, but knowing Joss' work as I do, I just sort of anticipated it.

I even sort of guessed right in that Shepherd Book would be the one to go. I'm not sure why. Maybe because he was always a bit on the periphery of the crew. Maybe Book was played by Ron Glass, a more famous, established actors than the relative newcomers who fill out the rest of the cast, and he might have been ready to move to different pastures. Either way, when Book dies on Haven, I wasn't surprised, though I cried mightily no different.

Toward the end, when Wash dies (Alan Tudyk), I couldn't believe it. But then, I knew, it's the price Joss expected the crew, and us fans, to pay.

In interviews, Whedon is already talking about "Serenity" parts 2, 3, and 4. With two of the crew gone, I gotta ask, "Joss, at this rate, who's gonna be left standing to make 'Serenity 4?'"

Granted this is the guy, who in a series called "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," killed the aforementioned title character not once, but twice.

But the universe of "Serenity" seems to be fairly free of all the supernatural trap doors available in the Buffyverse. No, when folks die in "Serenity," and the "Firefly" TV series that spawned it, folks pretty much stay dead.

No doubt, though, Joss already has ideas for each sequel, should they come to pass. He even sort of hinted in a recent interview that a sequel could have certain flashback elements.

Make no mistake: I want "Serenity" to open so big this weekend that Universal has no choice but to order a sequel.

But I know that's also likely wishful thinking. No, despite Whedon's comments to the contrary, the way he crafted "Serenity," the way he made us bid adieu to two of beloved crew, "Serenity" feels more like the series finale "Firefly" deserved but never got.

I think this movie is very likely the way we will all say goodbye to "Firefly."

That's okay, even as all I can say is, "We hardly knew ye."

A former entertainment journalist, Scott Nance is a member of the USS Chesapeake, an independent science-fiction and Star Trek club in the Washington, D.C., area. He is a columnist for Airlock Alpha, and can be reached at scottnance@airlockalpha.com.